Making The Case For Investment In SME Productivity
We supported a third-sector organisation over two years to secure major Government funding for SME productivity programmes by applying policy insight, business-case expertise, and sophisticated Government affairs and influencing activity.
We were engaged by a third sector organisation on a mission to boost the productivity of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the UK to help them secure the Government funding they needed to design, pilot, and scale programmes that would boost leadership and tech adoption in priority sectors.
Through a series of related projects over the course of two years, we helped our client secure substantial funding to scale their organisation, design and launch new programmes – and influence downstream Government policy in this critical space.
We supported them to secure funding through comprehensive spending review and budget processes, and through targeted, off-process, political engagements – including the submission of compelling business cases direct to Number 10.
Our success in doing so was rooted in a combination of our economic development and SME policy insights; our technical expertise in the development of business cases which met HM Treasury’s strict ‘five cases model; and our ability to advise and support our client with sophisticated Government affairs, influencing and relationship management activity.
We also provided our client with expert advice on how they might leverage the emerging social value in public procurement model to secure Government supplier commitments to invest in, and act to foster, SME productivity. This work informed our client’s influencing activities with respect to social value policy, and their engagement with places and strategic suppliers to Government.
As a direct result of our work, our client secured £20m of funding through the 2020 spending review. They also received Government support to develop a new digital platform to provide personalised advice for adoption of enterprise technology.
Our client’s CEO said of our work, “Avencera has a superb ability to grasp the strategic context and to rapidly identify ways to succeed in that context. They also have a brilliant balance between listening and being responsive, yet also giving firm advice on how to move forward and get stuff done.”
